MARSHALL, Texas – A new year is here for East Texas Baptist University football as they kick off the 2018 season on Thursday night against #16 University of Wisconsin-Platteville. This will be the first time for ETBU to open up a season in August.

Below are notes for the game.

SERIES
This is the first meeting between the two teams. Both teams finished 7-3 last year.

NATIONAL RANKINGS
ETBU is receiving votes in the D3football.com poll to start off the 2018 season. They are receiving 27 votes and are just 22 votes out of the top 25. Overall, ETBU would be ranked 29^th if a top 30 was published. Wisconsin-Platteville comes into the game ranked 16^th with 210 votes.

NEW COACHING STAFF
Brian Mayper is in his first year and has a new staff in place for the 2018 season. Mayper brings NCAA Division I, II, III, JUCO, and professional coaching to ETBU. His last head coaching stop was in a Europe professional league for the Belgrade Wolves in 2015. The past two years he was an assistant coach at Brennan HS in San Antonio.

Running the offense is Jason Bachtel who comes to ETBU after one year at North Forney High School and has over 14 years coaching experience. Taking over the defense is Calvin Ruzicka adding 17 years of coaching experience from Cedar Hill High School. Cedar Hill won state championships in 2006, 2013, and 2014. Richard Embry is the defensive line coach after being at Green Oak High School in Louisiana. He was the Central States Football League defensive player of the year in 2011 when he played for Southwestern Assemblies of God. Coming back to his alma mater, Tyler Scott is the offensive line coach. He was a two-time All-ASC first-team selection in his time at ETBU. Travis Danford continues on staff after receiving is master's degree from ETBU and is the running backs coach.

2017 SEASON
ETBU is coming off their third straight winning season which is a first for the program. The three straight winning seasons have come under three different coaches in Joshua Eargle (2015), Scotty Walden (2016), and Scott Highsmith (2017). ETBU tied for third place in the American Southwest Conference and produced two All-Americans in Ty Parsons and Richard Johnson. Parsons broke the ETBU and ASC record for tackles in a season (143) and Johnson set the program record for touchdowns in a season (15).

SEASON OPENERS
ETBU has won their last two season openers with wins over Southwestern Assemblies of God (2017), 59-17, and Texas Lutheran (2016), 44-20. Overall ETBU is 6-12 in season openers.
Season Opening Wins
Sept. 9, 2017                      @ Southwestern Assemblies of God       W, 59-17
Sept. 3, 2016                      @ Texas Lutheran                                            W, 44-20
Sept. 14, 2013                    @ Austin College                                              W, 52-34
Sept. 10, 2010                    Wisconsin-La Crosse                                       W, 33-20
Sept. 8, 2001                      Southwestern Assemblies of God            W, 49-7
 
ETBU vs. WISCONSIN TEAMS
ETBU has faced only one Wisconsin team in the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. The two teams played each other in 2009 and 2010 as season openers. ETBU Is 1-1 all-time vs. teams from Wisconsin and will be the third time in the program that a season opener is against a Wisconsin team.
Wisconsin Record
Sept. 5, 2009                      @ Wisconsin-La Crosse                                  L, 28-13
Sept. 4, 2010                      Wisconsin-La Crosse                                       W, 33-20

NEXT OPPONENT
ETBU will not play again until September 15^th when they host Southwestern University in their American Southwest Conference opener. Next week is ETBU's bye-week as the team will be off. ETBU has won their last meetings vs. Southwestern.